Product Description

LP 2 CD is the fastest, easiest way to convert your vinyl records to CDs with none of the hassle of connecting a computer. Listen to your music in the car, at home, on your computer, or any place with a CD player! Play your album into LP 2 CD and record one or more CD copies in the internal CD burner. Or, connect your computer and easily transfer your music to your iTunes, iPod, or MP3 player. LP 2 CD comes with software for fast, easy importing to your iTunes library. Just place your record on the turntable and insert a blank CD. Play your vinyl, hit the record button and let LP 2 CD do the rest! LP 2 CD includes a software CD with EZ Vinyl Converter for PC (with auto track detection) and EZ Audio Converter for Mac. They are the simplest way to record and convert vinyl directly to iTunes. It´s like magic! Before you know it, you'll be listening to songs you haven´t heard in years in iTunes or on your iPod. A free download version of EZ Vinyl Converter with Gracenote ™ MusicID is included for automatic track naming. Now you can listen to your music in the car, at home, on your computer, or any place with a standard CD player. Converting your records is a snap with LP 2 CD. iPod and iTunes are trademarks of Apple, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. Gracenoteâ„¢ is a trademark of Gracenote, Inc.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401 in Musical Instruments
• Brand: Ion
• Model: ION LP2CD
• Released on: 2009-03-09
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 17.63" h x 12.00" w x 19.25" l, 21.50 pounds

Features

• All-in-one: built-in CD recorder copies music from vinyl
• Copy entire albums or make your own custom mix CDs
• Works stand-alone, or connected to your computer
• Includes EZ Vinyl Converter 2 software (PC) and EZ Audio Converter (Mac) for hassle-free computer recording
• Included sound editing software helps you remove noise, clicks, and pops from worn recordings

Customer Reviews

Better than I thought
The ION LP turntable was much better than I thought it would be for the following reasons:

1) First of all, the sound through the headphones was nice, full, and deep - much better than I expected.
2) Recording directly to a CD made it much easier than dealing with software since I don't have the time to figure out how to effectively use the software (maybe later I will take the time to see if it makes it any better).
3) Recording to the CD was simple because the tracks are automatically separated. It also allows to manually separate tracks if for some reason the turntable missed separating a track (especially when an artist does not space out time between songs because they want the effect of a continual track).
4) It comes with a cover which many others don't (this may seem not important but it really is if you live in an environment where dust is prevalent).
5) Here's what I didn't expect which was a bonus - it comes with an internal hard drive to be able to record around 2 albums. This is very helpful because it allows you to correct any mistakes or skips that occurred before recording it on a CD. It also allows you to rearrange or erase any of the tracks very easily before recording it on a CD, so you can personalize your tracks compared to the album in a simple, easy way.
6) I am a musician and audiophile, so the most important thing to me is the quality of the sound that is recorded on the CD. Upon hearing the CD through my car CD player, the sound remained full, rich, and deep. This was very pleasing to me as I have tried other brands and the sound was always a disappointment, being very thinny and poor in quality.
6) Finally, the price on Amazon, along with free shipping makes it worth the money. I compared it to Brookstone which would have charged me $200 more in the store.

I personally believe that ION got all of the best features placed into this model which was more than I had expected. This is a good buy and the best model I have experienced so far. It is a 5 star product!

Just Right
I bought the LP to CD recorder not knowing what to expect as far as recording quality. The Ion Recorder is easy to record and easy to record to cd. No hookup is needed to a computer. The Stereo of the LP is the same as the burnt cd. The imperfections on the vinyl is transfered to the cd. The recorder is very well worth the extra money I had to pay instead of getting a cheaper model.

Unreliable ...and unfixable
The Ion LP 2 CD converter is a fairly straightforward machine, which means there is no reason why it shouldn't work consistently and reliably. Unfortunately, mine started failing immediately after I purchased it in April 2009. I got an "Error: System reset" message after trying to burn my first CD. I called Tech Support and they walked me through the reset process. Then, I began to get "Error: Track less than 3 seconds" messages. The machine was now inserting short tracks, which meant the burning process would not work. So, I switched off the automatic track inserter. I then started getting "Burn failure" messages. Once again I called Tech Support. (By now, they knew me by name.) After a week or two of fiddling around (by which point, the Ion was rejecting 90% of my blanks, but formatting them so I couldn't use them for anything else), I sent the Ion back. The company paid for the shipping, of course, and promised I would have the repaired machine back in 7 or 8 weeks.

It's been 3 months since I sent it back, and I'm still waiting. According to customer service, they'll get around to looking at my Ion "soon." But given the backup in orders, and the huge quantity of machines that have been sent back for repair (it seems quite a few of them have similar problems), I don't expect to see it before September. And when (if) it does return, I would not be the slightest bit surprised if I got an "Error: You've Wasted Your Money" message straight off the bat.

Update: I hate being right all the time. My Ion was returned after exactly four months with this note attached: "Tested extensively. Ran for 3+ hours. Not be able to recreate customer's complaint." I was able to recreate my complaint in less than a minute. I put the Ion back together, recorded an album and the very first CD I tried to burn yielded the same "System Error CD Write Failure" message I had been getting before. I called Tech Support. After verifying that I was using the right kind of CD (audio -R)they had me reset the machine. The second CD also produced the same error message. In short, the machine still doesn't work. (And why should it? Nobody be able to fix it.) Customer service says they'll have some new stock around October. My next prediction: The new machine will perform as badly as the old one.

Further update: Well, I was right. Again. The same broken turntable was returned to me in October. The repair people did not even test it to see if the CD burner worked. According to customer service, I will have to send the machine back again, but nobody seems to know when the new stock will arrive. I feel like I'm trapped in some weird existentialist play--Waiting for the Ion...